The Life-Line

The Life-Line

Just as there is a life-line, there is also a death-line. Every person moves according to one of these two lines, whether he or she is aware of it or not.

Jesus is the Prince of Life. He is life itself. He lived life. He revealed it to us. It was unknown before Him. He brought life to light. 2 Tim. 1:10.

The life-line consists of only serving and giving. “God so loved the world that He gave . . . .” John 3:16. There is no other way to love! Give yourself and everything you possess and everything you will possess in the future. Give your abilities and strengths, money, possessions, time, interests, love, care, light, knowledge, forgiveness, instruction, encouragement, exhortation, correction, chastisement, and consolation.

Love is the power, the attitude of mind, the quality and thought process that always and only thinks of serving and giving: serving all those who are willing to be served, and giving what you have and can give to everyone who wants to and is able to receive it.

This was the only thing that occupied Jesus. These are the steps He left behind. This was also the apostles’ only occupation.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give . . . .” Matt. 20:28. This is the only glorious life-line.

Blessed is everyone who moves along this life-line of love, never stepping away from it, neither to the left nor to the right, for there is no sin on this line. All sin is found beside it.

The immediate consequence of taking a single step away from this glorious life-line is sin. Then you will immediately end up on the death-line.

Sin and death belong together. The opposite of life is death, and the opposite of serving and giving is demanding and insisting and expecting something from others.

Unfortunately, the common way of thinking is that if demands are not too great yet reasonable, they are acceptable. However, the truth is that every demand is actually of the evil. Every demand is self-love. The source of every demand is a bad attitude of mind that is opposed to the mind and Spirit of Christ.

Demands on others are the cause of all strife and uproar, all wars and unrest among people in their homes, at their places of employment, in assemblies, and among nations.

These demands immediately provoke counter demands, and so it goes, along the death-line. One demand usually releases an entire string of sins of various kinds: discontent, anger, strife, hatred, etc.

It is possible to put an end to walking on this death-line completely. This is the intention, and to this we are called. Glory to God!

We have a powerful and very significant expression concerning the situation on the death-line, namely, Proverbs 30:15: “The leech has two daughters: “‘Give to me! Give to me!’”1

Both of them have the same name, for both of them are exactly alike and are the express image of their mother. A leech attaches itself to others and sucks the blood out of them.

Covetousness is of the same kind. The person always wants to have all kinds of things for himself. Alas, alas! What a spirit, what a nature, what a wretched attitude of mind.

My dearly beloved! Let us be exclusively filled with the love of Christ, faithfully walking on this glorious way of life, not taking a single step away from it!